Last night I had one of the most unpleasent dining experience in my entire life, and I’m creating this entry solely for the sake of someone Googling the name of the restaurant (Il Centro in Calgary, Alberta) and perhaps finding this blog entry. I won’t go into the boring details, but the short version is that the pizza is really tasty, but the restaurant staff is awful.
The one female waitress that was working last night was incredibly rude and gave us terrible service throughout our visit. The food was excellent – we tried the Calamari and three different types of pizza – but I’d never step foot back in that place again. It was insufferably hot even though it was cool outside, and we were completely ignored until I caught the waitress and asked if we could order – and she looked at me like I was a stranger on the street accosting her. My advice? If you’re interested in tasting the food at Il Centro in Calgary, order take out. Their pizza is great, but it’s not worth the awful dining experience required to get it.
Jason… if you get a chance, take a look for a book called ‘Waiter Rant’ (sorry, forgot the author). It’s by a professional waiter from New York who writes a blog, but put it all together into a book. It gives an interesting perspective on the other side of the house.
That said, it doesn’t excuse your waitress’ behaviour. She’s not helping the house or the cook out at all.
Hey Don. I’ll be honest, I have so many books to read I’m not likely to add that book to my pile, but I did find that guy’s Web site – and I read a story about him getting a physical from his doctor. He’s a good writer, making even that interesting. I’m sure waiters have it hard – I know I’ve seen some people treat them really poorly, and quite frankly after seeing the movie “Waiting” I’m always terrified to be rude to my waiter or waitress for fear of what they’re putting in my food. 😉 Nah, honestly, it’s not right to be rude to someone who’s serving you food. They have a hard job, and some jerk customer making their day harder isn’t going to make things better.
But…I’m a firm believer in my tip being up to me, and if being a reflection of my dining experience. I’m not one of those people who believes in leaving a 15% tip no matter what. It takes pretty bad service to get under my skin, but once a waiter or waitress has really ticked me off, their tip is going to reflect that. And I know the tip isn’t just for the waiter or waitress, but it doesn’t matter to me if the food was great – if the service sucks, I’m not going back there. I’ve only left a tip of zero perhaps four other times in my life.
I didn’t go into a lot of detail about this dining experience, but trust me, it was pretty awful.